One of Sebastian Franck’s central organizing concepts is rooted in his understanding of the term böfel, or the mob. Though not much noted in literature on Franck, his reflections on the term provide a central perspective around which he develops his distinctive vision of history and the desperate circumstances of human societies and individuals. The...

Frederick the Wise was a leading patron of the visual arts in the early decades of the sixteenth century. This essay examines the Saxon elector’s choice of St. Bartholomew as his holy protector and promotion of the martyred saint in painting and the graphic arts as a leading intercessor for the Christian faithful. Frederick’s personal devotion to St. Bartholomew is examined as a microcosm of...

During the Flacian controversy over the definition of original sin (1560s–70s), a doctrinal debate took place that proved to be foundational for Lutheran theology: a number of the laity from the central German territory of Mansfeld wrote confessions in which they articulated their views on the matter. The mere existence of these statements from the likes of counts, city officials, artisans,...

Margaret More Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More, was well known in her own day for her facility with Latin and Greek. Although most of her writings are no longer extant, two compositions still exist: a translation of Erasmus’s Precatio dominica of 1524 and the Alington letter of 1534. Critics generally read these works as evidence of Roper’s submission to More’s patriarchal control,...

The Adornes, a Genoese merchant family prominent in late fifteenth-century Bruges, exhibited a particularly devout attachment to the sites of the Holy Land, manifested in the Jerusalem pilgrimages of three sequential generations of Adornes men and through the construction of the extraordinary family chapel, the Jeruzalemkapel, a conceptual Jerusalem in miniature that served the family in...

When Thomas More resigned the office of chancellor in May of 1532, he departed from the government with the understanding that he would refrain from aiding or encouraging opponents of royal policy. This pledge was honored, but when events late in 1533 propelled Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent, into prominence, More was not able to avoid the consequences of his association with her and became...